1840-42. A DISEMBODIED SOUL. 283 



keeps cherubs always on the wing. And then, poor soul, it had 

 no passport for the next world. Charon demands to see a pro- 

 perly made out discharge from the upper world, and it did not 

 get so much as a notice to quit. The philosopher's soul wan- 

 ders yet a pale ghost on the wrong side of the Styx, while lone 

 has long ago been safely ferried over. 



" I have been inquiring of a person lately come from Greece 

 if he had fallen in with the recipe for disembodiment, as, having 

 no wife to be afraid of, I might, without apprehension, put it in 

 practice. 



" I should explain to my body, that it was a hard case it 

 must go wrong and require cuttings, and burnings, which made 

 me (the soul) agonize, while it was indifferent, feeling none of 

 them ; explain my intention of being an absentee till it saw fit 

 to mend matters ; and then, escaping through a pore in the skull, 

 come whizzing south, and alight upon the bridge of your spec- 

 tacles, perched astride of which I could peer into your eyes and 

 commune with your spirit. If you should feel any uneasy sen- 

 sation about your nose, rub gently ; souls are fragile things. 

 Meanwhile, I have exchanged such communion with you as I 

 can, and sign myself, soul and body, your loving brother, 



" GEORGE." 



" July 2, 1842. 



" MY DEAR DANIEL, If I could only sit upon a chair, which, 

 like the disembodied spirit I spoke of in my last, though not 

 for the same reason, I cannot do, I should write you longer 

 letters. But I have to lie in a twisted position, which I cannot 

 occupy long, and last night I took a holiday, there being no 

 post to carry you a letter. We are making preparations for 

 removal to the seaside on Monday ; we all go down ; and being 

 at Seafield, it will enable Jessie and Jeanie to go to school daily. 

 Seafield is no very inviting place, and there are no walks near 

 it, but I am obliged to take a lodging near enough Edinburgh 

 to admit of the doctors being within call. Moreover, I shall not 

 be able to cross the threshold for a while, and then only to creep 

 about the door on a pair of crutches, so that it is indifferent to 

 me where I go, provided the sea and the sea-air are present. 



